The Llanah Chronicles: Beginnings
by Penmasterap
Summary: The story of how Llanah and Jaina met. Llanah and some fellow Dragons get into trouble in the deep, dark, Dustwallow Marsh.


"Ugh, I think there's slime on my face." Wyntersong whined, wiping the gooey backsplash from the dissected spider off her forehead with a gloved hand and flicking it onto the ground. The Night Elf ran her hand through a lock of her white hair, checking for more gore before pocketing the eye she had sliced off the dead arachnid. "Why does this nutjob want spider eyes anyway?" She mumbled, leaning over and returning to her task; one down, seven to go. Her companion shrugged, too horrified to speak, keeping her own spider bug at arm's length, which was no mean feat considering it was half her size. Llanah hated spiders, which shocked most people she came into contact with, but her guild mates were used to it and secretly shocked she had lasted this long.

The hunter felt something tickle her shoulder and she brushed it off, casually, before catching it out of the corner of her eye. It was a spider leg, slowly creeping down over her arm. She let out a shriek and jumped back, unnaturally far, as she had been trained to do, her heart in her throat. The gnome holding the disembodied leg was busting a gut laughing and rolling around on the ground, her high voice tinkling in the humid air.

"Dori!" Llanah roared, stalking towards the mage in a fit of anger, "honestly..." she trailed off, not sure how to convey her loathing. Instead she simply shook her head and plopped down on the rock where Dori had been sitting until she had gotten mischievous. "For someone who had such a problem popping out eyeballs you seem to have no problem playing with their parts." The tiny gnome had refused to have anything to do with the eye collecting, calling the hermit who wanted them "an old crazy" and the spiders "innocent creatures", who deserved their vision, even if they were disgusting.

"Wyn, you're on your own." Llanah called as Dorianne continued to giggle and brandish the leg at Llanah. The elf was jumpy from the joke and almost flew out of her skin when the moss hanging from the willow she was sitting under brushed her. "How many have you got?" She asked Wyntersong, who was complaining to herself about lazy friends.

"Nineteen. I need one more" she replied,

"Here, catch." Llanah said, fishing around in her bags, finding one of her own and firing it off at Wyn, who caught it with ease. Wyn's wolf, Nix, followed it with his eyes, but continued to lie on the muddy ground, panting heavily in the thick air. "Hey, Dori," Llanah called, taking the other eye she had found and pitching it at the gnome, "take that." The spider eye hit the gnome right square in the face and she fell over, onto Llanah's own wolf, Farley, who yelped and jumped up, knocking Dorianne around further. She let out a winded "omph," as both elves laughed. Before she could get up Llanah was standing over her with a pile of leathers in her arms. She dropped them on the gnome, burying her in a pile of freshly skinned croc skins.

"Ew." Came her tiny voice, but Llanah walked away, calling over her shoulder,

"For that little stunt you pulled, my friend, you carry them."

The three women trudged through the muck and mire that was Dustwallow Marsh; wet, humid, dirty swampland that constantly threatened to suck them into sink holes and trip them with roots. More than once Wyntersong and Llanah had to reach out and grab Dori by the back on the collar to prevent her from disappearing into water shallow enough for the elves to wade through, but deep enough to be a deathtrap for the gnome.

"I _can _swim you know." Dorianne said, flustered as she was ripped off her feet and into the air yet again by one of the hunters.

"Fine," replied Wyn, winking at Llanah, as the gnome walked straight into a canal of brackish water; she disappeared from view with a splash and sputtered to the surface a moment later, spitting out muddy muck.

"Shut it," was all she said as she grabbed her helm from the puddle and shoved it down over her head, where it poured water all over her again. Wyn giggled, but kept walking past the mage, worried she would get an arcane missile to the head if she waited around any longer. Dori picked up her sodden leathers and strode past Llanah with her nose in the air. The jovial gnome was soaked to the skin and Llanah laughed to herself as she followed step, with both wolves trailing behind her.

The low trees blocked out most of the sun and it was hard to navigate through for fear of low hanging snakes, foul smelling water which harboured all types of diseases and wandering willow roots and palm fronds which either tripped you up or sliced your bare flesh. Llanah wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, removing her glove to do so, keeping her eyes open for any signs of raptors or crocs who liked to lurk beneath the pools which surrounded them. Dorianne and Wyntersong heard Llanah stop walking and turned, stopping themselves. Both were dishevelled, muddy and sweating and they took the break gladly.

"Where are we?" Dori asked, lighting a fire with a flick of her wand and trying to get dry. Wyn sat down next to her and instantly shrunk away,

"Jeeze, Dori, you smell like the underside of a shoveltusk. Whew." She fanned the air away from herself and towards the gnome, who had a choice gesture ready for the Night elf. Llanah sighed, sinking down into a crouch and pulling out her map.

"Curse this place," she breathed, "I can't see the sun for the damned trees, I can't find the horizon for the life of me..." she trailed off, studying the parchment. "If we traveled east from that cave then we should be," she traced her finger their predicted path, "here." She looked around at the landmarks, trying to find something to verify where they were.

Dorianne stood and looked around, joining the search, and her and Llanah put their heads together, arguing about North or South, the West road or the coast. Wyntersong lay back and laced her hangs behind her head, taking a moment to rest on a rare bit of dry group. She closed her eyes and listened to the insistent hum of bugs, frog chirps, and the low moans and airy calls of the swamp. _Wait, low moans? _She thought to herself, _um, that's not good…_ she opened one eye slowly, straining her neck around behind her. "Uh, guys." She called, getting to her feet cautiously, noticing the wolves were nowhere in sight "not now, Wyn," Llanah barked.

"Guuuuys." The white haired elf backed up towards her companions, keeping her bow trained on the zombies, which had her in their sights. Her two guildmates turned in tandem, yelling "What?", which merged into screams of their owns as they saw the masses approaching. Rotting corpses of what looked to have been humanoids stumbled and staggered towards the trio, bones protruding, flesh melting away. Some were missing arms or jaws, their putrid tissue oozing out in green and yellow pustules, arrows sticking out from their backs and necks.

"Okay, now what?" Llanah said as Wyntersong finally made it to the other two and they all began backing up together. "This is what." Dori replied, holding up her tiny hands and blasting out a wave off pure arcane energy, which rolled out from her in a purple wave, blasting the undead to pieces. Arms and heads flew around them, covering them in messy, sticky, gore that dripped off their armour like thick paint.

"Gross." The gnome said, "I hate this swamp." Llanah and Wyn nodded in agreement,

"Well, at least we know where we are." Llanah pointed out, "only place around here with undead is Witch Hill… which means we're way off course." They all let out sighs of relief; off course was still better than lost. Their calm was short lived as the individual pieces of zombie flesh began to quiver and the bigger parts began to crawl their way towards the Dragons again. "And, I'm done." Llanah said, turning on her heels and bolting, "unkillable zombies. No thank you." She yelled back over her shoulder as she scooped up her map and pack, hoping the other two had the sense to follow, and whistling for Farley, whom she hoped was close enough to hear.

They raced over small knolls and muddy packs of dirt, sinking in more than once, the calls of the dismembered husks gaining each time they did. Pushing their way through a dense pack of waterlogged trees the three adventurers and their wolves almost ran smack into the side of a stone tower. Llanah stopped just short of the tip of a longsword pointed at her neck and gulped. Dori ran into her, unable to stop, leaving Wyn to bring up the rear, squishing the gnome between the two taller elves. The mage let out a groan and began to complain when she saw the armour clad marines that had them surrounded. "Uh, hi." Wyn said, untangling herself from Llanah and giving a short wave.

A tall blond man with a commanding demeanour and haunting grey eyes stepped out from behind the masses of men and women who parted like the sea for him. "Well met and welcome to Sentry Point, hunter." He said, addressing Wyntersong, "I am Captain Wymor and I would like you to tell me why you're drifting through my swamp causing mayhem? And be quick about it." The marines stiffened and moved as one, surrounding the travelers and their pets in one fluid motion. "Or do I require more steel to make my point?"


End file.
